Tom Flood is an Australian novelist, editor, manuscript assessor, songwriter and musician.

Early life

Tom Flood was born in Sydney in New South Wales, and grew up in Western Australia. He is the son of Dorothy Hewett and Les Flood. He is the brother of Joe Flood, Michael Flood, Kate Lilley and Rozanna Lilley.

In his early years he worked variously as a paper boy, a tuna fisherman, a bus conductor and a rock musician.^[1]

Literature

His first novel Oceana Fine won the 1988 Australian/Vogel Literary Award,^[2] the 1990 Miles Franklin Award and the 1990 Vance Palmer Prize for Fiction. He has had a handful of short stories published in newspapers and journals, both Australian and international.^[1]

Assessment

In 2005 he started Flood Manuscripts, an assessment and editing service for writers. In 2015 he became an editor and assessor with the international writing and publishing services aggregator, reedsy, concluded 2017.^[3]

He was Chief Fiction Judge for NSW Premiers Awards 2003 (and also judged in 1993) and has judged and been on selection panels for NSW Premiers Writers Fellowship, Sydney University Fiction Award, Harper Collins Manuscript Award, Varuna, A Writers House and the Short and Sweet Theatre Festival 2007.^[3]

Music

In 2010 Flood formed the acoustic blues and roots band BluesAngels. They released a limited edition EP on CD in 2013, 'Best Be Blue', an album on CD and digitally in 2014, Devil Don't Believe^[4] and a music video Needle Never Caught in 2018. A pre-release 4-track EP, Rough Halos, was available in 2019.

Awards

• Australian/Vogel Literary Award, Oceana Fine, 1988
• Miles Franklin Award, Oceana Fine, 1990
• Victorian Premier's Literary Award Vance Palmer Prize for Fiction, Oceana Fine, 1990

Works

Novels

• Oceana Fine (1989)

Drama

• Model Citizen (1993)

Reviews

• Oceana Fine
  • Westerly, Sept. 1990, p. 93-94
  • West Australian, 22 October 1988, Weekend p. XI
  • Sydney Morning Herald, 20 December 1990, p. 50